Bertrand Russell was Wrong

Any philosophy can be internally consistent, but you’ve gotta get ur axioms right. Here’s the logical outworking of atheism – a thought system built on the most erroneous of first principles - according to Berty:

That man is the product of causes that had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins- all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding dispair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built.

If there were no God (absurd!), and all we had to look forward to was the inevitable heat death of the universe, then Russell - and all his pessimistic clan - are right. Thankfully, they're not.

Listen to Local Natives

These guys own – sounds like a more modern (read: not 19th Century) Fleet Foxes. Plus I’ve got mad love for Casey-Affleck-Assassination-of-Jesse-James-moustaches, as sported by frontman Taylor Rice.

Is Jesus Pitchfork Approved?

A friend recently gave me a copy of Douglas Moo’s Encountering Romans.

It got me thinking: there’s a surprising amount of good theological (or at least quasi-biblical) allusion going on in Pitchfork-approved bands - given that Christianity is pretty much the cardinal sin for hipsters.

A brief selection:

Anything by Sufjan Stevens (hello Seven Swans/Songs for Christmas)

Wolf Parade: “What makes a sinner serve, unless he knows you’re alive?” (cf. Romans 1:4)

Surfer Blood:

Forget the second coming

I need you in the here and now

Instead of dreaming up a way to spread your name across the world somehow

When you told me you were leaving

I wasn’t thirsty for revenge

No I wasn’t disappointed much at all

Coz you’ll be back again

Pseudo-Modernity: The Cultural Vacuum

Nigga READ MY MIND

In postmodernism, one read, watched, listened, as before. In pseudo-modernism one phones, clicks, presses, surfs, chooses, moves, downloads. There is a generation gap here, roughly separating people born before and after 1980. Those born later might see their peers as free, autonomous, inventive, expressive, dynamic, empowered, independent, their voices unique, raised and heard: postmodernism and everything before it will by contrast seem elitist, dull, a distant and droning monologue which oppresses and occludes them. Those bornbefore 1980 may see, not the people, but contemporary texts which are alternately violent, pornographic, unreal, trite, vapid, conformist, consumerist, meaningless and brainless (see the drivel found, say, on some Wikipedia pages, or the lack of context on Ceefax). To them what came before pseudo-modernism will increasingly seem a golden age of intelligence, creativity, rebellion and authenticity. Hence the name ‘pseudo-modernism’ also connotes the tension between the sophistication of the technological means, and the vapidity or ignorance of the content conveyed by it – a cultural moment summed up by the fatuity of the mobile phone user’s “I’m on the bus”.

On the plus side, following @NotPopeBenedict, @fakepastormark and @fakejohnpiper via twitter give Web 2.0 some meaning xD

Wife Acquisition Algorithm

Inspired by Mark Driscoll's sermon on dating.

People are Idiots

Bigger Stronger Faster is the best exposition of:

1. The essential (sinful) nature of man;

2. The tension between “winning” vs doing what’s right;

3. How pervasive the idiocy of ignoring data/logic/reason/scientific method among the unwashed masses is;

4. The importance of the libertarian state (especially for the non-Christian) and the adjunct: how utterly powerless authoritarianism is in modifying behaviour (lol @ laws against steroids) - WHO WOULDN'T WANT THE GOVERNMENT TELLING YOU WHAT YOU CAN PUT IN YOUR BODY?!?

These batty beurocrats are even HINDERING studies into the long-term effects of the drugs; we already know that steroids are absolutely safe when not abused (ie. cycled intermittently over short periods); but senseless laws blocking their use in clinical trials prevent any way of ascertaining the effects of chronic usage.

That’s all from me; I’m gonna go get some Adders from my G.P. – it is time for Easter revision, after all J

The Joyous Exchange

Mike Reeves' Unquenchable Flame is a great collection of Reformation info, much of which I heard him present back at (the great!!) New Word Alive festival in 2009.

Here's one gem:

The third, and perhaps most important of Luther's main works that year, was The Freedom of a Christian. Having made his attacks, this was his positive explanation of his gospel, and he dedicated it to the pope, since, for all his attacks on Rome and the popes, he wanted to save the man himself.

At the head of it is a story of a man who marries a prostitute - Luther's allegory for the marriage of King Jesus and the wicked sinner. When they marry, the prostitute becomes, by status, a queen. It is not that she made her behaviour queenly, and so won the right to the king's hand. She was and is a wicked harlot through and through. However, when the king made his marriage vow, her status changed. Thus she is, simultaneously, a prostitute at heart and a queen by status. In just the same way, Luther saw that the sinner, on accepting Christ's promise in the gospel, is simultaneously a sinner at heart and righteous by status. What has happened is the "joyful exchange" in which all that she has (her sin) she gives to him, and all that he has (his righteousness, blessedness, life and glory) he gives to her. Thus she can confidently display "her sins in the face of death and hell and say, "If I have sinned, yet my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned, and all his is mine and all mine is his."

Bam! Damn right it's a "joyous exchange" - may we never, dear Christian, plunge ourselves into the faecal pit of intrinsic righteousness.

Sola scriptura

Sola fide

Sola gratia

Solo Christo

Soli Deo gloria!